Strangeness and Charm
by Lady Antoinette
Summary: Little did Maddie Bucket realise that her younger brother winning the chocolate factory was only the start of their family's adventures. Nor did she ever imagine she was about to embark on a delicious journey of family and new beginnings, with a side order of kidnap, a dash of snozzberries and maybe even a sprinkle of - gulp - romance. WilderWonkaOC.


_I'm not much of a writer, I'm normally a lurker. But I thought I'd give it a go._

 _I own nothing. Not even the title which I borrowed from the song by Florence and the Machine._

 _OC is Charlie's sister (yes, I know, how original!) and the story begins immediately after Charlie wins the factory. If you'd like to know what Maddie looks like, I based her appearance off Lily James in the BBC War and Peace series._

* * *

 **Chapter One**

Charlie Bucket couldn't stop grinning.

He felt lighter than air. He was so happy at that moment he thought his heart might just burst with the intensity of it. In the space of just a few minutes, his life had changed forever. He had been given a chocolate factory! He was going to _live_ at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!

At learning from Mr Wonka he could bring the whole family along with him, mere words alone could not express his feelings sufficiently, and so young Charlie did the next best thing he could think of: he had wrapped his arms around the amazing chocolatier in a hug.

Willy Wonka couldn't remember the last time he'd been held in such a way, as a son might embrace his father. But he couldn't honestly say that he disliked the feeling at all and he gladly welcomed this display of affection and gratitude.

"Now, Charlie..." Mr Wonka said, as he gently unfastened the boy's arms. "Where do you live?"

Charlie, simply breathless with glee, turned to look back out of the Wonkavator's window to survey the town spread out below them.

"Just down there," he pointed out. "That little house right at the end..."

"Aha...I see it," said Wonka, looking to where the boy had pointed and immediately began pressing a multitude of buttons. "Now hang on tight, dear friends!"

"Why? What are you going to do?" Grandpa Joe asked in confusion as Wonka steered the floating glass elevator downwards.

"I'm going to go on down and fetch all the family," the chocolatier replied.

"But you won't fit a bed in here," Charlie told him, looking around dubiously at the small space of the Wonkavator.

"And you won't be able to get it out of the house anyway," chimed in Grandpa Joe. "It won't go through the front door."

Unfazed by this, Mr Wonka shrugged.

"Then I'll go through the roof and have to make a hole," he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world to suggest, ignoring Charlie and Grandpa Joe's horrified cries of,

"No, you can't-!"

"Stop!"

* * *

Maddie Bucket couldn't stop fidgeting.

Her fingers drummed restlessly against her thigh, her eyes fixed upon the front door. Surely they would be home soon?

What she really would've liked right now was to play her violin. It always helped soothe her in times of agitation. But Maddie was too jittery even to do that, so she made do by plucking absently at the strings with her sensibly short nails.

The violin had in fact belonged to her and Charlie's late father. Along with a battered book of sheet music, it was the most treasured item Maddie owned. It was as much apart of her as breathing was. She simply didn't feel _right_ without it. Each time she played she felt like her dad was almost there with her again. She remembered when she was small, before Charlie was born, nothing delighted her more than to hear her dear father play and Maddie begged and begged him to teach her.

If only to give her hands something to do, she fetched a cloth and set about polishing her violin. But there was little point to this as the sleek mahogany instrument was already shining. A few scuff marks here and there but otherwise perfect. She found she had less and less time to dedicate to her music these days but it still gave her immense pride to see the violin at its shining best.

Unable to stand it any longer, Maddie abandoned her task and rose from her seat to pace up and down the room for the umpteenth time, her eyes upon the window each time she passed it in the hope of glimpsing Charlie and Grandpa Joe's return.

"What time is it?" Maddie asked eagerly.

"Fifteen minutes later than the last time you asked me," Mrs Bucket answered patiently. "You'll wear a hole into the floor at this rate if you're not careful," she added with amusement at the sight of her daughter's rapid pacing.

"Ohh, I can't help it," Maddie said. "I just can't _wait_ to hear what they've been up to!"

That was the greatest understatement of the decade.

She was simply _trembling_ with excitement to hear all about their day.

Maddie knew how much going on this tour of the world famous chocolate factory had meant to Charlie. It was a dream come true and she knew her little brother was going to relish every single second of it.

Despite the fourteen year age gap between them, the siblings were remarkably close. His sister saw how heartbroken he'd been when it appeared that all five tickets had been found, even though he tried valiantly to hide his disappointment. She had heard him crying in the dead of night when he thought everyone else was safely asleep. Maddie's own bed was wedged in adjacent to his and she had reached out across the tiny gap to gently squeeze his hand in an attempt to offer him some comfort, just like she used to do when he was small and had been frightened by a nightmare.

She wondered, not for the first time, what the great Willy Wonka was like in person. She had only caught the fleeting, tantalising glimpse of the legendary confection hero of her grandfather's tales as she and Mrs Bucket watched from afar, jostled by the excitable crowd as they craned their necks to watch the winners go in.

It had been a frenzy of activity that day at the little house, being hounded constantly by news reporters and journalists all day long, something Maddie definitely was _not_ used to.

But now all was quiet again. The grandparents were dozing in their bed while her mother was preparing some cabbages for their evening meal later. Maddie knew her mum too was only trying to keep herself occupied as her eyes kept straying to the door.

Normally at this time, Maddie would have been busy at work but as of yesterday, what with Charlie finding the ticket, that was no longer the case.

One of her jobs was currently working as a shop assistant at a local florists. It was a handy spot to be really, as it was opposite from Mr Jopeck's newspaper stand. So when Charlie was done with his paper round, he and Maddie would meet up and walk home together, more often than not treading the route which would take them past the factory. As always they'd discuss and daydream about what possibly lay beyond those imposing iron gates.

Maddie had rather liked it at the florist; it was a nice feeling to be among all the beautiful colours and fragrances of the different flowers. Which certainly made up for her horrid boss, Mr Thripp.

She thought back to yesterday when she had been there and the most _wonderful_ thing had happened... was it really only yesterday?

...

 _Maddie looked out of the florists' window, distracted by a sudden hubbub. There seemed to be a great deal of activity going on outside just across the street. A kid was surrounded by a whole crowd of people, all clamouring in great excitement, almost in danger of being trampled. Amid the forest of flailing limbs, one shorter arm was waving a golden ticket around. An arm that belonged to a certain blonde headed figure that she would've known anywhere..._

 _One of the customers in the shop who Maddie had been about to serve, was also watching the scene unfold._

" _A golden ticket! Look! Isn't that amazing, Vi?" she gasped excitedly to her friend. "Right here in our town too!"_

" _But I thought the last ticket had been found already?" Maddie couldn't help chipping in to the conversation._

" _Ooh, no, it was a fake," the other lady called Vi told her. "I read it in the papers earlier."_

 _A fake? Maddie turned back to gaze disbelievingly out of the window just in time to see the boy detach himself from the crowd and speed down the street as fast as his legs would allow._

 _But... Charlie had got a ticket?_ Her _Charlie?_

" _Oi, Bucket!" her boss thundered from behind her. "I don't pay you to stand around looking gormless!"_

 _In a dream-like state, Maddie turned to face her employer._

" _What is a gorm, anyway, Mr Thripp?" she mused. "And why is it that I've apparently lost mine?"_

" _And I don't pay you to be a smart-ass either! What's up with you?" he demanded, spotting her dazed expression._

" _My brother's got a golden ticket," she murmured, more to herself than him, barely able to comprehend this fact. "_ Charlie's _got a golden ticket!" she repeated louder in a tone of great excitement, a huge grin spreading across her face._

 _But for all the good it was, Maddie might just as well have told the dahlias on the display beside her, for her elation was falling on deaf ears. Mr Thripp was a cranky old coot who was one of the very few who didn't care one jot about the Wonka-mania that had had the world in an obsessive frenzy for weeks._

" _I don't care if he's got a golden goose," he snapped impatiently. "Are you going to serve these customers or - Hey! Where do you think you're going?"_

 _The stunned joy at seeing her dear little brother with a ticket had filled Maddie with a sudden recklessness. Pulling her work apron off over her head, she dashed round the counter and towards the shop's exit._

" _Bucket, if you leave now, don't bother coming back!" Mr Thripp yelled after her._

 _But Maddie had already zipped out of the door and off down the street in the direction of home without so much as a backward glance, amid cries of "Sorry!" whenever she bumped into people on the way._

...

Maddie heaved a sigh. Upon reflection, her rash actions were probably _not_ the wisest thing she'd ever done. Her family needed every penny they could get and that wasn't exactly the first time she'd been fired, either.

She'd had more occupations than hot dinners, as the saying went. But seeing as her family barely had hot dinners, this did not mean very much. Unfortunately, not many positions had lasted very long; the record so far being a morning.

It wasn't because she wasn't a reliable worker, it was for the fact that she was so _clumsy_. Ridiculously so.

She had once taken a job as a cleaner at an antique store. It was fraught with danger really but she managed to get sacked on her very first day for knocking over and breaking a very valuable and expensive piece. Well, it was a stupid place to leave a Ming vase anyway!

If she wasn't playing the violin, not a day went past for Maddie where she would break something, trip over rugs or her own feet. Her legs tended to have the annoying habit of getting tangled up with chairs and tablecloths.

"When God rained down gracefulness and balance, I was the one holding an umbrella," she had once joked.

A clumsy violinist may well have sounded a dramatic contradiction in terms yet Maddie somehow managed to be just that!

She made light of the matter but it really was very embarrassing and made her feel like a bit of an odd sock.

But still...it wasn't every day your brother wins the chance to go to the very place he'd dreamed about his whole life!

No matter how many positions Maddie had taken over the years, be it waitressing, a shop assistant, helping her mother at the laundry or even scrubbing out toilets; no matter how hard she grafted for long hours, no matter how much she scrimped together a small pittance just so that she could buy wool for her grandmother's knitting, or an extra blanket or two for the winter time, it never seemed to be enough.

There was always _something_ which needed to be dealt with; bills to be paid and the household to be maintained. That previous winter had been particularly harsh with storms; a nearby tree blew down and made a hole in the roof. It had begun to leak and had needed to be fixed as quickly as possible lest they became flooded.

Their stone built house kept cool in summer but it was _dreadfully_ cold in the winter. Coughs and colds were commonplace but it was small wonder none of them, especially the grandparents, had succumbed to pneumonia, though Mrs Bucket had come very close. She was bed-ridden for a week from sheer exhaustion and it had been down to Maddie to strive to keep things afloat until her mother was better.

The family never had anything brand new. They had the 'make do and mend' mantra down to a tee; their clothes were worn but always well-cared for. But Charlie was now reaching that age where he was growing faster than you could blink and needed clothes which actually fitted.

As much as the mere idea of it was soul-destroying, Maddie had even offered to sell her precious violin to try earn some extra money but her mother wouldn't hear of it. Mrs Bucket had insisted no, things were not so bad as all _that,_ that she should sell her one connection (aside from her children) she had left of her husband.

But by a sheer miracle, that one magical moment... Maddie thought she could see a tiny glimmer of hope... the hope that perhaps those days were soon to be behind them, that the family's luck was about to change...

Maddie could think of nobody better who deserved this opportunity more than her little brother. Not that she thought the other children _didn't_ deserve it, but judging from what she had seen of them from their television interviews, they were all pretty well off. So for them, the purchasing of chocolate bars was an everyday occurrence, not an annual treat to save up for. For them, this tour of the factory would be just another fun day out to add to their long list of other fun days out.

Although at the time, Maddie thought that it was distinctly unfair because Veruca Salt had not even found the ticket by her own merit; her rich father had done it for her. That Beauregarde girl didn't seem too bad but Maddie could not see why anyone would wish to make a world record from chewing the same piece of gum day in, day out. But then again, Maddie didn't care too much for gum herself ever since a boy at school once put some in her hair. As for Mike Teevee, he was extremely rude. He seemed to find the whole affair a great annoyance, snapping at the reporter to shut up so that he could continue watching his TV show.

If only he'd been allowed to bring two people along with him to the factory, Charlie wished Maddie could come too. The opportunity would have been so _wonderful..._ after all she'd heard from Grandpa Joe, it sounded like the stuff of dreams... But she did not mind too much.

This was _Charlie's_ dream, _his_ moment of glory, _his_ time to shine. But she knew he would be living the experience for them both and she had made him swear to tell her every single tiny detail of his adventures on their return.

But the adventure, as the Buckets were soon to find out, was only just beginning...

"Do you think that things will be different for us now?" Maddie now asked her mother quietly.

Mrs Bucket paused in the action of chopping up a cabbage as she remembered Charlie asking her a similar question not so long ago.

"I was just thinking... maybe Charlie winning the ticket could be a sign that things are going to change," Maddie continued. "That this might be the start of a fresh beginning for all of us."

Mrs Bucket favoured her daughter with an affectionate smile. Whatever other hardships had been endured in their lives, despite all that was wrong, there was one aspect she had certainly got right: she was grateful to have such two wonderful children. Both Charlie and Maddie could normally be relied upon to think on the cheerier side of things no matter how dire the situation. They were the brightest things in Mrs Bucket's life, like two rays of sunshine.

She did not consider herself poor in that sense; she had a roof over her head - albeit a ramshackle, hole-riddled one - and a loving family who meant the absolute world to her and would do just about anything for. There were many people out there who did not even have that.

Mrs Bucket reached out a hand to gently touch Maddie's cheek.

"I admire your optimism, my darling but I'll believe that when it happens," her mother answered. "Miracles don't just fall out of the sky, you kn-"

However, the rest of her sentence was drowned out by an ear-splitting crash.

Both women shrieked and scurried to safety. Just in the nick of time too. Roof tiles (the very same ones which had to be replaced last winter) showered down amid pieces of plaster, spiderwebs and clouds of dust. Where they had been standing only seconds ago was the most peculiar contraption Maddie had ever seen. As the clouds of dust began to clear, through the glass windows were two familiar figures, one not. Though they had a good idea who it was...

A ringing silence spiralled around the room at the shock of this... _thing,_ whatever it was, landing slapbang in the middle of their house.

Finally, Maddie piped up, "You were saying, Mum?"

* * *

 _Thoughts? I'd love to know if people would like to read more of this. This the first fanfic I've ever posted so feedback would be lovely!_


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